Funding for Graduate Students

General Information

Financing your graduate education is primarily your responsibility. However, the Department of Geography has access to some support and there are
other potential sources of funding. This page outlines some of the most common ways in which our students finance their graduate studies.

Graduate Assistantships

The Department of Geography controls some support, which it uses to grant a Teaching Assistantship (TA) or a Research Assistantship (RA) to qualified
applicants. The Department's intent is to provide four semesters of funding to graduate students in the department, subject to funding availability and
adequate progress. The allocation of a TA or RA is based primarily on departmental teaching or research project needs, not on students' desires for the
type of work they wish to do. Continuation of funding is contingent upon students adequately fulfilling their TA or RA duties, making adequate progress
in their coursework, and making sufficient progress on their thesis research. The Department of Geography will withdraw funding if these criteria are not
met. Students working as TAs are primarily responsible to the faculty member with whom they are working. Students working as RAs are primarily responsible
to the faculty member who is funding the research on which the students are working. In either case, the supervising faculty member evaluates whether or
not a TA or RA is adequately fulfilling his/her duties. "Adequate progress" in coursework is defined as maintaining a 3.0 grade point average in all
graduate work, and passing GEOG 501 (Research Design and History of Geographic Thought), and passing GEOG 585 (Advanced Spatial Analysis), both with a
grade no lower than a "B-". "Sufficient progress on research" depends upon the timely completion of the goals outlined in the "Thesis Research
Timeline" Section if the Department of Geography Guidelines for
Graduate Students.

To apply for financial support from the Department of Geography, please clearly indicate your interest in financial support in both your
application letter
and online application form. The priority date for review of requests for financial suport is 15 January for fall applications and 15 August for
spring applications. Funding requests submitted after these dates will be considered only if the Department has not yet allocated all of its TA or RA lines.
If you are not already a graduate student in Geography Program and would like to be considered for funding through the Department of Geography, your
program application must also be submitted by 15 January and 15 August for fall and spring applications, respectively.

All new graduate assistants, including graduate, research, teaching, administrative, and other assistants, have to participate in a
Graduate Assistant Orientation. If you have been offered a graduate
assistantship, be sure to register for the orientation and complete it as instructed by the Graduate School.

Western Regional Graduate Program (WRGP)

The Department of Geography at NMSU is one of the graduate program that meets "the criteria of distinctiveness and quality" required for inclusion
in the Western Regional Graduate Program (WRGP), which "makes high-quality, distinctive graduate programs and
healthcare-related programs available to students of the West at the resident tuition rate. As part of the Student Exchange Program of the
Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, WRGP helps place students in a wide range of graduate programs, all designed around the
educational, social, and economic needs of the West."

For more information on how to apply for the WRGP resident tuition rate for this program, see the program's
website and/or contact the Graduate Advisor for NMSU's Master of Applied Geography program,
Dr. Daniel Dugas

Personal Resources

Graduate students may also fund their education through personal funds and resources or by taking out loans from private lending institutions,
either for the duration of their graduate studies or until a different source of funding (e.g., a Graduate Assistantship) becomes available to them.